Dispensing holder for bar soap



Jan,r 7 1958 J. F. HENNESSY DISPENSING HOLDER Fox BAR SOAP Filed Nov. 23, 1953 INVENTOR. JOl-M/ F. /gu/vsss'r.

' A rroe/v yf heat The present invention relates to a holder for bar soap which enables soap to be removed from such a bar for washing purposes.

It is a particular object to provide such a bar soap holder which will support a bar of soap enclosed in a container to exclude dirt from it While leaving the lower surface of the soap bar substantially exposed for use. A bar of soap thus held will further be maintained sanitary because the soap cannot be handled as a whole with dirty hands, and the surface contacted will dry quickly instead of remaining wet to promote adherence of dirt to the surface.

A further object is to provide such a holder for bar soap which will be economical to construct and light in weight, yet will be durable and of simple construction so that maintenance difiiculties will be avoided. Moreover, the supply of soap may be replenished easily and quickly.

A particular advantage of the soap holder is that the soap is held firmly for contact by a single hand when desired, enabling a person to wash one hand at a time while the persons other hand turns on the faucet, for example, so that it is not necessary to pick up the bar of soap in order to use it. While use of the soap is thus facilitated, the soap is not wasted, but, on the contrary, it will be consumed in the most thrifty manner.

Additional objects and advantages of the particular bar soap holder illustrated in the drawings will be understood from the following specific description. Essentially, however, the holder includes a grating on which a bar of soap is supported and held against lateral movement in at least one direction. To facilitate dispensing of the soap the bar is held firmly downward against the grating by latch mechanism which will prevent the soap from being lifted appreciably on contact for dispensing purposes, but which will enable a follower element to move downward for keeping the bar of soap in contact with the grating as soap is consumed from it.

Figure l is a front elevation view of the bar soap holder with parts broken away to reveal internal structure.

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view through a portion of the soap holder taken on line 2-2 of Figure l.

Figure 3 is a top perspective view of the soap holder with parts broken away to show internal structure and structural details.

The holder for bar soap includes a cabinet 1 which is closed on the top, back and two sides adjacent to the back, and has an open front which may be closed at will by the door 1 3. Preferably this door is of the vertically sliding type having channels 11 formed along its upright sides engaging respectively flanges l2 projecting oppositely from the opposite side walls of the cabinet. The door may be held in position closing the front of the cabinet by a suitable lock 13 which may be mounted in the top of the cabinet and engage a suitable socket on the inner side of the door.

When the door is raised, it exposes to view the soap bar S received within the cabinet, and the structure for 2,818,674 Patented Jan. 7, 1958 supporting it and holding it against displacement during use. The support for the bar of soap is a grating tray including a rigid rectangular frame 2 of a length and breadth somewhat greater than the corresponding length and breadth of a soap bar to be placed in the holder. Preferably this frame is of angle cross section to make it rigid, although light. Conveniently, the grating may be formed of small strong wire 20 such as piano wire, but it should have corrosion resistant characteristics. This wire may be wound in serpentine fashion around lugs 21 arranged in staggered relationship along the opposite longer edges of the frame 2. These lugs may be struck up from the tray frame or otherwise mounted on such frame.

The frame itself may be supported by its opposite shorter edges resting on inwardly directed flanges 14 bent from or attached to the lower edges of the side walls of the cabinet to form shelves. When the tray is thus supported, the wires 24) of the grating will extend parallel to such flanges 14 and substantially perpendicular to the back of the cabinet. It is preferred that the lugs 21 be of a Width approaching the spacing between them so that the stretches of wire 28 will be substantially parallel and will be spaced apart a considerable distance, such as one-quarter of an inch to an inch. The tray should, of course, be of a length to extend substantially from wall to wall of the cabinet in a direction parallel to the back and of a width to extend substantially from the back of the cabinet to its open side. When the door 10 is in closed position, its lower end will extend down at least substantially to the flanges 14, so that the tray 2 cannot be withdrawn from the cabinet.

In use the hand H of a user will be extended palm-up beneath the soap bar supporting tray and will be moved upward into contact with the grating. The wires 2% are sufficiently fine so that the fingers will readily fit about them and contact the soap resting on the wires. It is preferred that the tray frame be sufiiciently larger than the bar of soap so that the soap will lie entirely within the frame 2 and will not contact the lugs 21. The user may then move his hand forward and back, sidewise or in a circular motion in rubbing the soap. Even though the hand is wet, however, it will exert considerable upward pressure on the soap in removing from the lower surface of the bar soap to be used in washing the hand. For that reason it is desirable to make provision for holding the soap firmly against upward movementunder pressure of the users hand and reasonably firmly against lateral movement which rubbing of the hand would tend to induce.

The bar of soap S is held down against the grating which supports it by' a follower plate 27;, upward movement of which is restrained such as by a rod 25 suitably secured to the center of the plate. Such plate, for ex ample, may have at its center a hole through which the rod 23 extends, and such rod end may be threaded to receive nuts 24- screwed toward each other to clamp the plate 22 between them. This rod is guided for vertical sliding movement by collars 25 spaced apart vertically and supported by brackets 26 having end flanges spotwelded to the back of the cabinet 1 or otherwise suitably mounted on the cabinet.

It will be evident that as soap is removed during use from the lower surface of the bar S such bar becomes thinner, and if the follower plate 22 is to hold the soap bar firmly downward against the supporting grating, it must move downward as the soap is consumed. Consequently, rod 23 cannot be anchored stationarily but must move downward with the follower plate as the soap bar becomes thinner, but at any given time it should effectively prevent appreciable upward movement of follower plate 22 so that the soap may be contacted effectively by a hand for dispensing some soap from it.

To hold rod 23 against undesired upward movement slipping latch means are provided which may include a latch lever 3 carried by and swingable about a horizontal pivot rod 30 which may conveniently be supported by a bracket 31 of U-shape having flanges on the ends of its legs which are spot-welded to the back of the cabinet 1. Preferably this pivot rod is substantially bisected by a vertical plane passing through the rod 23 and disposed perpendicular to the axis of pivot 30. The latch lever then has through it a hole somewhat larger than the cross section of rod 23 so that when the lat-ch lever swings through a small angle from the horizontal position shown in Figure 1 in dotted lines to the inclined position shown in section in Figure 1 and in solid lines in Figure 3, the rod will be pinched between opposite edges of the lever aperture.

As the plate 22 moves downward by the action of gravitational force thereon as required for it to follow the upper surface of the soap because of the soap bar becoming thinner as soap is consumed, the friction between the rod 23 and the edges of the aperture in latch lever 3 will cause the apertured end of the latch lever to swing down ward automatically toward rod releasing position. The latch lever, therefore, does not in the least interfere with such downward movement of the rod. The end of latch lever 3 opposite its apertured rod-engaging end is' weighted, however, so that the lever continually is urged to swing in the rod-latching direction. For this purpose any suitable weight 32 may be fixedly or removably attached to or formed on the end of the latch lever remote from rod 23. When it is desired to raise follower plate 22 for the purpose of inserting a new bar of soap, the cabinet cover will, of course, have been raised or removed to afford access to the latch mechanism, and the latch may readily be released simply by swinging the weight .32 upward or by temporarily removing the weight if it is removable. Preferably the weighted end of the latch lever and its apertured end are not in the same plane, but the apertured end may be inclined upwardly somewhat from the pivot while the weighted end is substantially horizontal as shown in Figure 1 to render the lever arm on which the weight acts most effective, to keep the mechanism as compact as possible.

The mechanism described will hold the follower plate 22 firmly down on the soap in the manner described, and the wires 20 of the soap bar supporting grating will deter lateral movement of the soap in a direction transversely of such wires. During a soap dispensing operation, however, the hand H normally will be moved primarily lengthwise of the stretches of wire 20, and in order to facilitate dispensing of soap it is preferable to hold the soap against such lateral movement. For this purpose the lower surface of the follower plate 22 may be provided with friction means such as by being roughened or provided with some other type of soap gripping means. The preferred form of friction means is illustrated as a series of parallel ribs 27 carried by and projecting downward from the follower plate. A convenient way of forming such ribs is to cut the follower plate and bend fins downward from the plate to leave slots. The lower edges of these fins may be sharpened if desired.

While two groups of four fins or ribs 27 are shown at opposite sides of the follower plate backing rod 23, it will be evident that the ribs may be longer or shorter, or might be secured to the underside of the plate instead of being formed from it. Such ribs will not greatly resist movement of the soap bar lengthwise of them, but, as mentioned previously, wires 20 will deter movement of the soap in this direction to some extent, and it is desirable that the soap bar have some movement in this direction periodically to prevent grooves being formed in the soap by the wires. The penetration of the rib edges into the upper side of the soap or the friction of such rib edges on the soap surface will, however, produce great d resistance to movement of the soap bar lengthwise of wire stretches 20.

While the wires 20 and the ribs 27 will deter lateral movement of the bar of soap as explained, they will not positively prevent such movement. It would be undesirable, however, for the soap bar to be able to move laterally in any direction sufficiently to overlie any portion of the frame 2 of the soap supporting grating. For that reason a spacer Wall 15 is provided within the cabinet, the inner surface of which is spaced at least from the back and the two adjacent side walls a distance equal to or greater than the width of the frame 2. Preferably this spacer wall is made in a single piece, as shown best in Figure 3, and desirably is made from corrosion resistant material such as stainless steel or chromium plated sheet metal. The ends of this spaced wall may be spot-welded to the cabinet to hold it in place. The height of the wall is not critical, but it should extend downward to a location close to the upper edge of the grating frame 2 so as in effect to form a guide groove between its lower edge and the flanges 14 supporting the soap carrying grating.

P or some installations it may be desirable to provide a drip catch pan. Such a pan 16 should be supported below the grating 2 a distance sufficient to afford easy access for a hand H between the drip pan and soap bar supporting grating. This pan may be supported from the back and adjacent sides of the cabinet 1 by extending the cabinet back downward the appropriate distance and bending its lower edge inward to form the flange 17 on which the rearward edge of the pan 16 rests. Such pan edge may be secured to the cabinet back flange by bolts 18. The pan may be supported in cantilever fashion by additional bolts 19 securing rear portions of the pans opposite sides to downward extensions of the cabinet sides. While this pan is shown as having upturned edges, the front edge may, of course, be omitted, if desired, to facilitate cleaning of the pan, or the pan may be removed periodically for that purpose. Quickly disengageable fasteners of any suitable kind could, of course, be substituted for the bolts 18 and 19 if desired, but particularly where the soap holder is used in public washrooms, it is desirable to secure such a drip catch pan more securely to prevent irresponsible persons removing it and neglecting to replace it.

I claim as my invention:

1. A dispensing holder for bar soap comprising a cabinet adapted to house a bar of soap therein, supporting means carried by said cabinet, a loose grating resting on said supporting means and including a frame having substantially parallel, fine wires disposed in coplanar relationship spanning said frame and defining therebetween elongated spaces unobstructed over substantially the full length of said wires, the lower surface of said grating being exposed and adapted to support a bar of soap on its upper surface, and means restraining appreciable upward movement of said grating under the influence of an upward force exerted by a hand engaging said grating or the soap bar thereon.

2. A dispensing holder for bar soap comprising a cabinet adapted to house a bar of soap therein, a grating including a frame having substantially parallel, fine wires disposed in coplanar relationship spanning said frame and defining therebetween elongated spaces unobstructed over substantially the full length of said wires, the lower surface of said grating being exposed and adapted to support a bar of soap on its upper surface, a follower member disposed above said grating and havin generally parallel ribs projecting downwardly therefrom, extending transversely of the wires of said grating and engaging the upper surface of a soap bar on said grating to resist horizontal movement of such soap bar in a direction transversely of said ribs, and slipping latch means operatively connected to said follower member and restraining appreciable upward movement of said follower member under the influence of an upward force exerted by a hand engaging said grating or the soap bar thereon, but releasable by gravitational force acting on said follower member for downward movement thereof.

3. A dispensing holder for bar soap comprising a cabinet adapted to house a bar of soap therein and including parallel substantially horizontal ledges on opposite walls thereof disposed in horizontal registry, a grating including a frame having opposite edges resting on said ledges, and substantially parallel, fine wires disposed in coplanar relationship spanning said frame and defining therebetween elongated spaces unobstructed over substantially the full length of said wires, the lower surface of said grating being exposed and adapted to support a bar of soap on its upper surface, and upright walls disposed above said ledges a distance just slightly greater than sufficient to receive the grating between the lower edge of said walls and said ledges and restraining appreciable upward movement of said grating under the in fiuence of an upward force exerted by a hand engaging said grating and the soap bar thereon, and said walls being spaced apart a distance substantially less than the 6 extent of the grating in a direction perpendicular to said walls for engagement of the soap bar with said walls to prevent its movement to a position overlying either margin of said grating supported by said ledges.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 445,769 Chamberlin Feb. 3, 1891 549,831 Steuer Nov. 12, 1895 562,033 Rounds June 16, 1896 605,976 Schreiner June 21, 1898 635,592 Rauhoif Oct. 24, 1899 797,167 Beyea Aug. 15, 1905 857,724 Dean Mar. 16, 1907 879,217 Thrasher Feb. 18, 1908 913,222 Miller Feb. 23, 1909 1,579,784 Rothschild et al. Apr. 6, 1926 2,489,543 Sanford May 26, 1949 2,522,483 Plack Sept. 12, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 472,036 France July 24, 1914 

